


You Only See the Sky

by colebotanica (dontrushme)



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bakery, Alternate Universe - No Reapers, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-04-28
Packaged: 2018-05-26 18:28:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6250729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dontrushme/pseuds/colebotanica
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I had a dream that Garrus owned a bakery, so here you go, I guess.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> the title is from a Richard Siken poem which is incredibly shepardxgarrus called Road Music.  
> "The eye stretches to the horizon and then must continue up./ Anything past the horizon/ is invisible, it can only be imagined. You want to see the future but/ you only see the sky."

Garrus Vakarian was, people said, one of the best bakers on the Citadel. His mother had always told him so- the best on Palaven, at least. She hadn’t wanted him to leave home, but after his military service, staying at home and baking had seemed incredibly boring. So he’d left, come here, and used all his savings to open a bakery on the Citadel.

It was kind of small, a big kitchen with large ovens not leaving much room in the front. The walls were a warm off-white, and he had a long counter with a glass display of some of his pastries and cakes, and behind the counter was a big machine that sliced loaves of bread. He hadn’t wanted to spend the money, but the asari baker he’d hired, Mierin, had insisted that many dextro cultures appreciated the human custom of perfectly sliced bread.

Still, humans weren’t the usual customers. Although there were a few regulars, humans from the apartments up the street that liked having a fresh loaf every few days, for the most part his customers were turians and asari. The turians around enjoyed having authentic Palaven savory pastries, and asari were willing to try anything that wouldn’t kill them.

Garrus knew most of his regular customers by name, but there was one human woman that he’d never seemed to have the guts to talk to.

“Garrus,” Melenis said, poking her head into the kitchen. She was a turian woman from a remote colony, barely older than his younger sister, with bright green eyes, dark plates, white colony marks, and a nose for gossip. “That human you’re in love with is picking out a cake. The one with the orange…” She gestured to the top of her head. Garrus rolled his eyes but followed her out the swinging door, bringing with him a tray of little tarts that Mierin loved to make.

The woman was, indeed, staring intently at the cakes, leaning slightly on her metallic cane. She frowned and walked over to the register, glancing at Garrus before turning to Melenis. He tried to listen in as he carefully placed the tarts in a line in the display. The woman’s voice was rough and abrasive as she ordered a loaf of bread and some sort of dextro cake. Melenis quickly handed her the bread and boxed up the cake, grinning at Garrus as she walked past him to get her cake. She was far too smug.

The woman thanked Melenis and limped out. Two humans had been in line behind her, and they turned to each other as she left. “That was Commander Shepard!” one of the humans said, incredulous.

“Who?” Garrus stood and flicked a mandible at the humans.

“She’s some kind of Alliance hero,” the male human replied. “Scary looking, isn’t she? She looks much less… you know… on the vids.”

He flicked his mandible again and retreated back to the kitchen. “Should’ve gotten her autograph,” the male said. The female snorted.

“Yeah, ‘cause I’m sure she wants people bothering her while she’s trying to buy bread. Jesus, Gary.”

Garrus frowned, his mandibles tight to his face as the kitchen door swung shut. He hadn’t thought her to be scary. Beautiful, maybe, but not scary. _Get it together, Vakarian._ Did humans think that facial scarring was intimidating? This… Shepard had some light scarring along her nose and jaw, but nothing disfiguring. Although who was he to say what humans found to be an unacceptable level of scarring. He, himself, had fairly extensive burns along the right side of his face and neck. Did his human customers think that he was intimidating?

He shook his head and went back to kneading out dough.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I... really like this AU.

The bakery closed every day at 14:00, giving Garrus a few hours before the station’s artificial day/night cycle made everything go dark. He often just went home and slept until 01:00, at which point he would have to wake up again to have fresh bread ready for the bakery to open. But sometimes he would let himself have a night out- if he fell asleep in the dough the next morning, Mierin would help him out. Plus, monotony didn’t suit him.

So out he went, reminding Melenis to lock up the store. Her irritable reply was cut off by the closing door, and Garrus rumbled with amusement. It was hard to imagine the girl doing her military service, insubordinate as she was. He shook his head and walked along the street.

There was a pretty good turian restaurant a few blocks away, maybe he could get some early dinner and-

He turned the corner and walked right into somebody, knocking them over and sending their silvery cane flying. It was the red haired Commander Shepard, and she was sprawled on the ground, her face pinched.

“Oh, Spirits, I’m so sorry,” he said, grabbing her cane and offering her a hand. She stared at him, her brown eyes amused.

“That’s okay,” she said in her pleasantly growly voice. “You’re the guy who owns that bakery, right?”

“The very same,” he replied, his mandibles flicking out in a stupid grin. She took his hand, and he pulled her up.

“I’m Jane,” she said. This close, her scarring was a stark white against her brown skin and even browner spots. _They're called freckles, Vakarian._

“Garrus,” he said, letting go of her hand. She put her weight back on her bad leg, wobbling for a moment before collapsing again.

He gasped and grabbed her, moving to support her on her bad side. “You can’t even stand. Let me get you to a clinic,” he said.

She directed a scowl in his direction before sighing. “Fine, _Garrus_.”

 

\--

 

Garrus sat in the waiting room while Jane got her leg looked at. She’d said he could leave, but if she couldn’t walk, how would she get home? So he waited. The clinic was far too cold and the other occupant of the waiting room was an old human man who was coughing loudly and wetly.

The young human doctor was, luckily, very quick, ushering Shepard back into the waiting room with lightly accented assurances that she was fine, but really should keep off her feet for a few days and keep her leg on ice. Jane thanked the doctor, and Garrus’s earlier thought that they knew each other was confirmed when she let the other woman pull her into a hug.

She turned her sharp gaze to Garrus. “You didn’t have to wait for me,” she said. Her knuckles were white where she grasped her cane.

“I just wanted to make sure you got home okay,” he said.

“I’m not a child,” she snapped, hobbling towards the door. He followed behind her.

“If you tell me to leave you alone, I will,” he said, “But Jane, I can call you a skycar if you just sit here.”

She stopped and frowned at him for just longer than was comfortable. Shaking her head, she sat in the chair nearest the door and gestured towards the transit terminal visible from the clinic.

The ride was, surprisingly, not uncomfortable. Jane sat in the passenger’s seat and typed in her address before turning to him. “This happens to me a lot. You didn’t have to help me, I can handle it.”

“It was my fault,” he said. “I ran into you. It’s not any trouble, anyways.” She raised a reddish eyebrow at him. The skycar began to move, and she looked away, out the window.

He watched her- she was quiet for the short drive, watching the cars on the Presidium. He thought he caught her lips curling in a human smile for a few seconds, but when he glanced back, it was gone.

The car stopped in front of a nice building- the Alliance must take care of their own- and Jane climbed out. The smile was there again, for a moment. “Thanks,” she said quietly.

He grinned, as charmingly as he possibly could. “My pleasure.”

She shook her head. “See you around. And now you don’t have an excuse to pretend you don’t see me. Yeah, I noticed that. You knocked me on my ass, so now you owe me.”

Garrus laughed, mandibles flicking, and he watched her open the fancy building’s door and disappear before typing his own address into the skycar. There wasn’t enough time now to do much more than get takeout and watch a vid at home, but he didn’t really mind.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the sake of, this is a fluff story and I don't want to add more angst than necessary, I'm not gonna play the whole 'but turian/human relationships are taboo!' game- not that i dont love that game, just that I don't really feel like it.  
> I also thought this fic was going to be very short- a few chapters at most- but apparently a lot of people like this? so I might add more than I was originally going to.

The day was fairly busy, with Garrus in and out of the kitchen, refilling their display and helping Melenis as necessary. Mierin had started getting orders for custom decorated cakes, and she often spent more time on them than she should, hiding in back all day to create intricate patterns and lettering on the cakes. He couldn’t figure out the human tradition of writing things such as ‘happy birthday’ and ‘congratulations’ on a piece of food, but if they wanted to pay extra for it, he wasn’t about to complain.

He was skillfully tying up a box full of tarts when he heard a low voice. “Hey, Garrus,” the voice said, and he turned to look into the warm brown eyes of Jane Shepard. She was leaning heavier on her cane than usual. He felt a pang of guilt.

“Jane,” he said, smiling. She smiled back, seemingly in a far better mood than their last encounter. “What can I get for you today?”

Melenis was looking at him, her subvocals an amused rumbling. 

Jane shot a look at Melenis- oh, Spirits, could her translators even pick that up?- and frowned thoughtfully. “A loaf of sourdough bread, I guess.”

He nodded and grabbed one, putting it in the slicer while he quickly boxed up one of Mierin’s little fruit-topped tarts. Melenis had already checked her out for the bread, so Garrus handed her the plastic-wrapped sliced loaf over the display along with the little box. She raised an eyebrow and frowned.

Garrus grinned, his mandibles flicking out. “It’s on the house.”

She shook her head and smiled- he’d seen her smile more times in the last ten minutes than in the months that he’d spent trying to pretend he wasn’t watching her. Her smile was nice. It softened her features, made her look less like the veteran that she was and more like a young human woman.

“Thanks,” she said. He flicked his mandibles and his subvocals rumbled as she limped out, stuffing the bread in the bag she had slung across her body.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry if this is a little half-assed, and also very late, I just went through a break up and also have had some health problems. I'm having surgery on the 19th, so I'll be out of commission for a bit around then as well.
> 
> also, check out my playlists for garrus/shepard...  
> http://8tracks.com/sertralinehcl/second-chances  
> http://8tracks.com/sertralinehcl/second-chances-pt-ii

Solana had almost a month of leave, and she had decided to spend most of it on the Citadel, pestering Garrus and getting along far too well with Melenis.

She had taken to sitting in the bakery sometimes under the guise of spending time with her brother- not that she didn’t have other things to do. Even though she could be annoying, Garrus missed the trouble they got up to as kids, and he thought that she did too.

It was about a week into her visit when Melenis decided that things were getting boring. The bakery was momentarily empty, and too quiet.

“Your brother is in love with a human,” she said to Sol.

Solana gasped and turned to him. “What! Why didn’t you tell me?”

Garrus groaned. “I’m not in love with anyone, Sol!”

At that, the recorded chime of the door went off. Jane limped up to the counter and looked curiously at Solana before turning back to Garrus. _Of course,_ he thought, trying to keep down an embarrassed flicker of his mandibles.

“Garrus.” She didn’t have her cane with her today. Did she forget it? Wasn’t it hard for her to walk?

“Hello, Jane,” he said.

“Could you get me two loaves of that whole grain bread with the seeds sprinkled on the top, sliced thick?” Jane was in a good humor today, her brown eyes lively and a small smile creasing her cheeks. Garrus was distracted momentarily, before an amused click from Solana brought him back to attention.

“Sure.” He selected the two freshest loaves and placed them carefully in the slicer. Behind him, Sol introduced herself.

“Hi, I’m Solana, I’m Garrus’s sister.”

“Commander Shepard.”

Garrus turned to see them shaking hands. “Jane,” he said. He flicked out his unscarred mandible. “Here’s your bread.”

She took the bag from him, transferring the payment from her omnitool in a few quick taps. “Thanks,” she said, standing there for a moment. “You can walk me to my apartment, if you want.”

He smothered an excited subvocal which, judging by their twin looks of joy, Melenis and Sol had definitely heard, and moved around the counter. The bread bag crinkled as he took it from her. That earned him a raised eyebrow, but she allowed it.

“Don’t worry about us!” Melenis called after them, her tones dripping with sarcasm. He ignored her.

 

“How do I know you don’t just feel sorry for the old crippled Marine?” Jane said abruptly, her little smile gone. She was clearly having some trouble without her cane, her steps slower than normal.

“I don’t. Every turian has to serve in the military, plenty get injured. I don’t know much about humans but turians don’t see that as anything to be ashamed of.”

She thought that over for a few moments, watching him out of the corner of her eye as if searching for a second of pity or dishonestly. She nodded once. “I didn’t know you had a sister.” Subtlety was not her strong point, Garrus thought.

“Yeah. She’s a pain in the ass, but she’s my little sister.” He gave Jane a lopsided grin. “Do you have any siblings?”

Her good humor came back slightly, and she returned his smile. “Yes. I have two brothers.” They chatted meaninglessly the rest of the way to Jane’s apartment. In front of the door, he handed her back her bread.

“Thanks,” she said. “See you later.”

 

Back at the bakery, Solana was far too pleased. “Garrus, Dad is gonna love her. A marine! I thought for sure you’d end up with someone boring. She’s pretty, too.”

Garrus glared at her. “Don’t tell Dad. I swear, Sol…”

She laughed brightly, sharing a conspiratorial look with Melenis. “Whatever you say!”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took so long. I got surgery last week, and it turns out, writing while heavily drugged is a slow, difficult process.

The message pinged on his omnitool about halfway through the day, just before lunch. The sender was just listed as Jane, and Garrus quickly opened it.

              _J:_ _Want to go on a walk with me after you finish work? If you can keep up with me._

He couldn't help the grin as he typed back a swift reply.

              _G:_ _Sure, see you at 14:00._

It felt lacking, but he couldn’t think what more to add and hit send.

              _J: :-)_

He frowned at the incoherent symbols and shrugged.

 

The day seemed to drag on, boring task after boring task. Solana was still on leave, but she’d stayed in her hotel. She and Melenis had gone out, and Melenis was still hungover from the night before and unwilling to provide her usual level of entertainment and gossip during lulls in business. She seemed to perk up as the day went on, though, and by an hour before closing she was practically her usual self.

Garrus began getting ready to leave early, at almost 13:30- if he got out quick enough, he could be at her doorstep at 14:00 exactly.

“Garrus,” Melenis drawled. She was leaning on the counter, an amused smirk on her mandibles. “In a hurry?”

Mierin walked in from the kitchen. “I saw you _grinning_ at your omnitool earlier. Are you going on a date?” Melenis gasped.

“No, I’m not- it’s not- that’s not what this is,” he began, his mandibles flicking with embarrassment. He’d never been a good liar- not that he was lying. It definitely _wasn’t_ a date. _Get it together before you make a fool of yourself, Vakarian._

Mierin laughed brightly. “Go to your beautiful lady friend. We can take care of closing.” Melenis grumbled at that, but didn’t voice her complaints at being left to do the menial labor.

Garrus smiled. “We’re just going to hang out. Because we’re friends. But if you insist on taking care of my clean up for me…” He waved on his way out, excitement stirring up butterflies in his gizzard.

 

 

The Citadel was… far too clean, clinical, sterile, for someone who had grown up on Earth. She was used to the outdoors, sleeping in doorways or, while serving, in shitty cots in a room full of sweaty marines. Not this place made of metal and filled with people who were too rich for their own good. Jane Shepard may have been an Alliance hero, humanity’s golden girl, but she did not fit in with these pompous civilians.

There were a few places that she liked around the Citadel. There was Anderson’s slightly messy but well furnished apartment, a human restaurant near Garrus’s bakery that was always a little empty and served the best food around, and a stretch of park along the Presidium lakes that almost felt like it hadn’t been meticulously landscaped. Sometimes she liked her own apartment- but more often than not it felt like a prison. And, yeah, she had to admit that Garrus’s bakery was always warm and smelled like yeast but it wasn’t like she went there for the atmosphere.

It was almost 14:00, Shepard noticed. She stood from her desk and pulled on her light jacket that she’d thrown on the floor. The white bit of the N7 stripe up her arm had turned a bit grimy, and threads were coming loose, but it wasn’t smelly which make it a winner.

Her cane was lying on the floor by the door. She always tried to prop it up, but the smooth, uncarpeted floor caused it to roll around far more than was necessary. Sighing, she bent to pick it up. Pain crackled in her bad leg. She groaned and forced herself back up, cane in hand. “Stupid fucking piece of trash,” she muttered to herself- and immediately felt bad. It wasn’t like she’d be able to get anywhere without it. When her last one had fallen apart, she’d been hard-pressed to get out much at all until the replacement arrived.

Shepard hobbled as fast as she could over to the little mirror on her dresser. She frowned at her reflection, smoothing her hands over her unruly hair, and pulled it back into a huge curly ponytail. Just as she had finished bobby pinning the worst strands into place and putting on some lip balm, the doorbell rang. Her omni-tool showed that it was 14:02. She had been running late, then, but what was new?

It only took her a minute to get down to the ground floor, where she found Garrus looking around nervously. She smiled. They’d only really talked a couple of times, but she caught herself grinning at him like a dumb teenager. _You look fucking stupid, asshole._

“Hey, Garrus,” she said. He turned to her, his mandibles held out in a goofy expression.

“I brought snacks,” he said, holding out a paper bag. “I heard humans call it a picnic. I read that it’s traditional.”

She snickered. “I don’t know if I’d call it that, but thanks.”

He flicked his mandibles at her- God, he really was kind of handsome, wasn’t he? “Where are we headed?”

Shepard felt her cheeks heating up a bit. She was such a mess. “Follow me,” she said, as confidently as she could.

As they walked along the clean streets of the Presidium, they chattered about next to nothing and she tried to pretend that she hadn’t noticed him slowing down his gait to match pace with her.

“You’re not taking me somewhere to murder me, are you?” he teased.

“Maybe,” she replied. “I hadn’t decided yet. I was going to eat you but you brought snacks, so.”

He chirred with laughter. “You can’t eat me, you would die. You’re levo-amino.”

“No,” she said.

He snorted. “Yes, you would.”

“There’s dextro-amino life on Earth,” she said. “I’m not a scientist, and I may not have graduated high school, but I know I wouldn’t die. It just wouldn’t be that healthy for me. So if I wanted to become a serial killer who eats her victims, I would have to kill humans sometimes, too, not just turians.”

He shook his head. “That can’t be true.”

“I’ll prove it. I’ll eat some of whatever you brought for yourself. It’s true.”

His mandibles flicked as he gave her an incredulous glance. “Spirits, Jane, if you die…”

She huffed. “You don’t trust me? Look it up on the extranet. I’m not making this up.” His brow plates flexed, and she knew he meant it to look like a glare but it just made her laugh.

 

It didn’t take them that long to walk down to the Presidium lakes. At this part of the Presidium, there was a long strip of grass and tree-analogues along the water. After glancing quickly around, she clambered awkwardly over the railings.

“Come on,” she said. Garrus took the whole thing in stride, getting over the fence much quicker than she had.

“You know, my dad is in C-Sec,” he said conversationally, following her to a well-pruned tree about halfway to the water.

“I’m sorry about that,” she replied. Her leg was a bit sore from the walking, but the pain alleviated slightly as she sat against the tree trunk. Garrus settled beside her, stretching out his long legs. He reached into his bag and handed her a little box.

Jane opened it, smiling at the beautifully decorated tart inside. This one had slices of mandarin and raspberries on it, dusted lightly with powdered sugar.

“Do you, ah, break the law often?” Garrus’s voice was overlaid with an amused rumble. She looked up from her bite of tart and caught him watching her- his eyes were so, so blue. She held her hand over her mouth and swallowed.

“Yeah, well,” she said, putting the tart down in her lap. “Sometimes I come here and just… think. Back on Earth, I lived in the city, but there was a park like this nearby. Everything on the Citadel is so fake, and I know this is, too, but I can pretend.”

He flicked his mandibles at her- a smile- and leaned back against the tree. “On Palaven, we have a big garden. My mother takes care of it, and this scrappy bit of land is nowhere near as beautiful, but I know what you mean.”

She sighed. “It’s just so cold. I miss the sun.” Jane met his gaze again and smiled. “Tell me about Palaven.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, not necessarily relevant for this chapter, but a few points of information!  
> 1\. in this AU, the geth and the quarians have decided to work together to help the quarian fleet rebuild on rannoch because.. No reapers, or something. I just want everyone to be happy, damn it.  
> 2\. Ash and Kaidan are both alive!  
> 3\. EDI is also a Thing because.. I like her?  
> 4\. Grunt exists, somehow, as well

Garrus took up meeting Jane after work fairly regularly, and sometimes taking lunch breaks to get food with her. As they grew closer, he found himself faced with her dark moods less often. She would sometimes be more taciturn than usual, but he hadn’t been accused of pity more than once or twice.

Their frequent outings gave Melenis a lot to gossip about. Garrus had never been great at controlling his subvocals- it was usually considered polite to try to keep them down unless you were around close friends and family. He generally failed miserably. So when she asked about Jane, Melenis could see right through his nonchalant answers.

“Does she know you’re in love with her?” Melenis asked one day after Jane had left the store. She’d probably asked similar questions before, and Garrus just groaned.

“It’s not the damn pre-contact days, Melenis. It doesn’t work that way.” He’d sort of given up denying it- even to himself. But he had heard that humans don’t usually go for transparency in their courtship the way turians did. If she was a turian female, she would already know how he felt- what he wanted. Turians didn’t tend to voice their feelings the way humans would.

Melenis clicked irritably. “That doesn’t mean you have to make the rest of us miserable, with all your _pining_.”

He clicked back, pulling his mandibles tight against his face. “I don’t pine.” He walked back into the kitchen, calling through the door as it swung shut. “Don’t you have work to do?”

Jane had stopped by to ask Garrus to go to a vaguely trashy bar with her that night. A few of her old friends from the Alliance had shore leave, and she said she wanted someone to bring with her since she likely wouldn’t know everyone there.

As Garrus got back to kneading bread- a fairly mindless task- he wondered what he had gotten himself into. Any friends of Shepard’s had to be… interesting, to say the least.

 

 

 

Interesting was right.

Jane had oversold the shittiness of the club. It was actually fairly nice, sort of clean and the drinks weren’t watered down. Her friends, though…

They were all squished into a booth in the corner of the bar. It was poorly-lit and out of the way. All of Jane’s friends referred to her as ‘Shepard,’ Garrus guessed because she must rank higher than any of them, despite the fact that a few of them were very definitely not military. They all seemed to have been conspiring to keep her at the edge of the booth. This left him wedged between Jane and a soft-spoken asari that he’d been introduced to as Liara and who just kept getting louder with every drink.

It was one of the most eclectic gatherings he’d seen. Around the table were four humans, the asari, a young quarian woman who had started to get sloppily drunk around her second filtered turian ale, and, of course, himself. Jane seemed most inclined to talk with the quarian woman, who she didn’t seem to have any sharp words for, and one of the humans, a man who also carried a cane and had immediately begun by insulting her. She had laughed, for some reason. Garrus doubted many people could get away with that. They called him Joker, which could not be his real name.

The other human woman kept getting everyone more drinks, and by the fifth drink Garrus noticed Jane’s hand on his arm. She wasn’t exactly a touchy person, she hadn’t even touched her friends beyond a handshake with one of the human marines, but now she was running her fingers over the fabric bunched up by his elbow. Garrus felt sort of dizzy.

Her wild red hair was loose around her shoulders, and it caught what little light there was in the dark booth. Every time she moved, it stirred her scent around in a very distracting way. Not to mention the tight dress she was wearing that clung to her- Oh, _Spirits,_ he wasn’t even that drunk, he needed to get it together. He tried to focus on Jane’s friends’ chatter- they were drunk, and most of them were soldiers, so it was mostly war stories that didn’t make much sense and never seemed to get finished.

Liara turned to him, quickly zeroing in on Jane’s hand on his arm. She smirked. “Going to make an honest woman of our Shepard?” she said, her breezy voice high-pitched and a little slurred.

“I- no, I-“ Garrus stammered. His brain wanted nothing more to do with him, and Jane’s hand had moved to his leg, and had she just _giggled?_

“Noo,” she slurred. “That’s not possible. N-nobody could do it.” Jane giggled again.

The quarian- Tali?- began to giggle as well. “Shepurrrrrd,” she began, before collapsing in messy, hiccupy laughter and spilling her drink.

Joker frowned. “Maybe somebody should get her home.” Out of the group, he seemed the most coherent- the two Marines had left, which Garrus hadn’t noticed. Maybe he was more drunk than he had thought.

Jane leaned in closer, a smirk on her face, her fingers inching up his thigh. “Maybe somebody should get _me_ home.” Her breath smelled like fruit and liquor. Liara and Tali seemed to be discussing whether they needed to leave or not, but Garrus couldn’t hear them over the blood rushing in his ears.

She stood and gestured, slightly clumsily, for him to follow. He tried to follow her, but stumbled a bit- he was very, very dizzy. Jane giggled, which should be illegal, surely, and grabbed his hand.

Then they were in a cab, and she was practically in his lap, one of her hands running down his neck. Garrus thought he might choke. Or suffocate, because he was really having trouble catching his breath. Maybe even burn to death, it was so, so hot in this cab, his skin was so hot…

 

 

It seemed to take no time at all to get them to Jane’s apartment building, and they stumbled to the elevator, Garrus holding Jane’s cane in one hand and using his other arm to keep her upright.

Garrus had never been in her apartment- it was done in pale colors, off whites, with strange artwork hung from the walls. It was also messy, bits of clothing and empty bottles on every surface. She pulled him into her bedroom and into a kiss- the human kind, and it was maybe sloppy and had too much tongue but she tasted so, so good, and she smelled so good, and her tongue was in his mouth and her hands were tugging at his shirt-

He pushed her away, growling. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. “It shouldn’t happen like-” he said, unable to stop his fingers from tracing along her various large expanses of exposed, criminally soft skin. “We’re not supposed to be drunk. We shouldn’t do this.”

She pouted, her eyes closed, her long dark lashes brushing against her cheeks. “I’m not drunk.”

“Jane, yes, you- you are,” he said, his subvocals flanging with- want, need, definitely a bit of arousal… “Which is why this is stupid. Not a good idea.”

She opened her eyes and frowned at him. “But I want you,” she said indignantly.

“I want you too,” he said, reluctantly pulling away. “But you’re drunk. I- I should go.” Garrus bumped into the doorway as he tried to back away, tripping a bit over the threshold.

“No, wait,” Jane said. She sounded so- vulnerable. Her hand was back on his arm, tugging him towards her. “Stay,” she said. “We don’t have to- just stay. Please.”

Garrus didn’t want to leave. Leaving was the last thing he wanted to do. He knew that he didn’t want to have her like this, though, and Garrus was fighting his elation at her admission and his turian instinct to just… He took a deep breath. “I can’t,” he said, begging her to understand. If only she was a turian- she could know, really know—Garrus stumbled a few times as he fled the cool air of her apartment.

 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Modification Testers Wanted](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6819346) by [RavineMichelle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavineMichelle/pseuds/RavineMichelle)




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